


Seated Girl, With Ruffles

by ryfkah



Category: Baccano!
Genre: Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-28
Updated: 2011-02-28
Packaged: 2017-10-16 00:10:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryfkah/pseuds/ryfkah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a little girl, Eve had loved having her picture taken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seated Girl, With Ruffles

As a little girl, Eve Genoard had loved having her picture taken. Benjamin and Samantha had indulged her, as they did in almost everything, calling in the photographer for every birthday and special occasion; she would drag her brothers to stand in front of the camera and beam anxiously up into the black box, making sure her hair was neat and her dress was smooth and begging Dallas and Geoffrey to smile. Geoffrey did smile, most of the time, old enough to be indulgent to a pleading small sister, and Dallas could occasionally be bullied into it, but neither one ever stayed to take more than one group picture before they pelted off to go do whatever boy things they did on their own, leaving pretty little Eve in full possession.

When he was sixteen, Dallas went into a rage and ripped up all the photos of himself that he could find in the house. Eve managed to save a photo of herself and Dallas by the expedient of hiding it in a book of Poe’s short stories; the only place Dallas was less likely to look was her Bible, but somehow hiding a picture of Dallas in the Good Book felt disrespectful to the Bible and her brother both. She couldn’t get to any of the pictures of Geoffrey-and-Dallas in time, though. Dallas had gone after those first.

After that, the only pictures left in the photo albums were shot after shot of small Eve, demure little girl with her hands neatly folded, attentive to the photographer’s instructions. By the age of ten, she’d already become less enamored of having her picture taken, but she’d never had the heart to tell Benjamin and Samasa. Half the dresses she’s ever owned are immortalized here; in every one she sits alone, her skirts growing longer and her smiles more and more tentative as the years pass by.

She hasn’t looked at the photos in years.

She’s looking at them now – studying her own face, small pointed chin, light-colored locks. Anxious to look her best, anxious to please somebody unseen; smiling in every picture, even the most recent, the ones where she felt least like smiling. What a sweet, what a _good_ little girl.

“Eve!” Samantha appears in the doorway, frowning over at her. “Eve, you decided what you’re gonna wear for the picture yet?”

“Yes,” Eve calls back, closing the photo album on the last picture of her, taken on her sixteenth birthday. She’s wearing now the same dress she did then; it’s pink, with puffed sleeves and ruffles around the waist. She spent some time considering her options before concluding that she actually liked pink and ruffles, and there wasn’t any good reason to change. “Is the Daily Days photographer here?”

“Yeah, Elean brought him on over. Listen, Eve, me and Elean are gonna go take in a movie, but Benjamin’ll be here. Don’t let that Daily Days no-good boss you around too much, all right?”

“All right,” Eve says, and sets the photo book aside.

A few weeks later, there’s a new entry to slide into the back of the photo album. A newspaper clipping, from an article about the Genoard business’ recent philanthropic projects – a human interest piece, accompanied by a picture of pretty little Eve Genoard herself, so young and such a tragic story; a newspaperman's dream.

In the photo, Eve doesn’t look much older than she did in her sixteenth-birthday picture. The outfits she chooses aren’t calculated for sophistication.

But she’s standing, hands straight at her sides and her chin is high, and she isn’t smiling.


End file.
